Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Thursday that the federal government remains on target to balance the budget in “the medium term,” and touted the country’s economic resilience.

Speaking to a group of volunteer firefighters just in Stittsville, Ont., one week before the next federal budget comes down, Mr. Flaherty said the government is “on track” to balance the budget and gave some insight as to what the budget will centre on when it is tabled on March 29.

“We will have modest savings-reductions in order to stay on track to a balanced budget in the medium term,” Mr. Flaherty said. “More importantly — and this really is the focus of the budget — if you concentrate on the savings, you’re going to miss most of what the budget is about. (It’s) about long-term sustainability for jobs, growth and prosperity, looking at retirement income, making sure our social programs are sustainable in the long-term for Canada.

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“We’re coming back down in our deficits — you’ll see the numbers next Thursday. We’ve done very well this year, we’ll do better next year. We keep reducing the deficit and we’ll get to balance in the medium term.”

Mr. Flaherty also defended the government’s Economic Action Plan by referring to a number of infrastructure projects across the country, as well as numerous tax credits, including child fitness credits and those linked to volunteer firefighters.

He said that initiative has help keep unemployment down across the country as well, saying that despite the economic downturn, Canada’s unemployment “never went into double digits.”

In terms of health spending, Mr. Flaherty said the federal government — at about six per cent — is outpacing the spending put forward by the provinces, which he said sit below the six per cent-mark.

Mr. Flaherty was particularly critical about provincial spending in Ontario and said change is needed in that province to put it in a better fiscal situation.

“What we’ve basically seen in Ontario is eight, almost nine years of spending mismanagement,” he said. “They need to focus in Ontario, and for the good of the country . . . on the spending side of the ledger and get things under control. What we’ve seen so far from Ontario — and this is disappointing, but not surprising — is this ‘we’re in a lot of trouble . . . so we’re going to blame Alberta and other Canadian provinces.’

“Next week I suspect they’ll blame . . . the federal government, despite the fact our transfers to Ontario are up 77% since we took government in 2006. This year, we’ll transfer $19.2-billion to the government of Ontario, so I forewarn you about that, that we’ll see this ‘blame everyone else, and don’t look in the mirror’ (attitude).”